On December 18, 2018, the Narendra Modi government told the Rajya Sabha in response to an unstarred question that it had not received any formal communication from the Election Commission on concerns related to the electoral bonds scheme.
However, with documents obtained under the Right to Information Act clearly showing that the Election Commission had indeed written to the Union ministry of law and justice about electoral bonds, the Modi government, in its second term, corrected its response to the Rajya Sabha in the just concluded Budget Session. The Election Commission had written to the government, flagging its concerns with regard to electoral bonds, including the worry that the scheme would impact transparency in funding of political parties.
In the Winter Session of Parliament, in reply to question number 830, which was posed by Rajya Sabha MP Md Nadimul Haque, then minister of state for finance P. Radhakrishnan said the government had not received “any concerns from Election Commission on the issue of Electoral Bearer Bonds”.
Haque had asked “whether it is a fact that the EC had raised concerns on the issue of electoral bonds. If so... the details thereof, as well as reasons thereof and the steps taken by the government to address the concerns.” Haque, on February 13, wrote to the Rajya Sabha chairman filing a breach of privilege complaint against the minister. He wrote that the government's reply was in contradiction to the various letters exchanged between the Election Commission, the ministry of law and justice and the ministry of finance.
Various documents accessed through RTI by activist commodore Lokesh Batra (retired) showed the concerns of the poll body on the bonds was shared through a letter written to the ministry of law and justice. Haque's letter was referred to the department of economic affairs, ministry of finance, seeking their comments on the issue.
“These letters establish the fact that the ministry had indeed received concerns of the Election Commission as covered by various news reports. This amounts to misleading the house and qualifies as a breach of privilege. The said incident raises further concerns about the transparency of the scheme,” Haque wrote in the letter.
On August 5, the MoS presented to the Rajya Sabha the corrected response to the question on electoral bonds, providing a detailed list of the concerns raised by the Election Commission with regard to electoral bonds.
As per the corrected reply, the Election Commission has expressed concerns with regard to the amendments of three statutes contained in the Finance Act, 2017, that are crucial when read together with the electoral bonds scheme. The issues flagged by the poll body include possibility of shell companies being set up and black money being used for the purpose of making donations to political parties, making donations received through bonds exempt from reporting and making it impossible to assess whether political parties have taken funding from government companies or from foreign sources.
